Year 1
As your child comes to the end of their Reception year and gets ready for the exciting move into Year 1, we thought it would be helpful to share our home learning guide. We hope you find the information useful as you prepare for this next stage of your child’s learning journey.
A Super Busy Week-Sports Day and Transition Morning
Wow! What a busy and exciting week we’ve had!
It all started on Tuesday morning with our Early Years Sports Day. Every single child was absolutely amazing! It was so lovely to see their enthusiasm, determination, and fantastic participation throughout the morning. They tackled every race and activity with big smiles and lots of energy – they really did us proud!
A huge thank you to all the families who came along to cheer the children on. Your support made the morning even more special, and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying the event together.
On Thursday, our Reception children had a fantastic time visiting their new Year 1 classroom. They were excited to meet their new teacher, Mr Nash, and explore their new learning environment. They loved getting a taste of what life in Year 1 will be like – in fact, some of them enjoyed it so much they didn’t want to come back!
Tidy week 2
This was our second week using the book Tidy by Emily Gravett. This week we practised orally retelling the story using actions to help us remember.
Art
This half-term, our featured artist is Alexander Calder. Calder was most well known for his sculptures and mobiles. We explored photographs of his artwork, discussing the different shapes, colours and how his creations made us feel. Inspired by Calder’s moving mobiles, we designed and made our own using plastic bottles, paint and glitter. They are now hanging from the classroom ceiling for the wind to catch and make them move.
Sports day reminder
Sports Day is on Tuesday at 9.30am. Please ensure your child comes to school wearing PE kit. They should also wear a t-shirt in their team colour. As the weather is expected to be warm, please make sure your child brings a named sun hat and has sun cream applied before they come to school.
Meet your new teacher
On Wednesday morning, the Reception children will spend some time getting to know their new teacher and exploring their new classroom. This is an exciting part of the transition process and helps the children feel more confident and familiar with their new learning environment.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined the transition Zoom meeting. We hope you found the session useful. As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to speak to me.
A school trip to Nell Bank
On Friday, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to Nell Bank. We explored the importance of recycling, went on a bug hunt and helped create homes for baby badgers. The children were enthusiastic, curious, and eager to share their knowledge throughout the day. A big thank you to all our helpers for coming with us on the trip and to Margot’s mummy and Holly’s daddy for coming too.
Mind Mate
This week we had a visit from Mind Mate, they talked about the 6 basic emotions.
We had great vocabulary to talk about them, due to our Feelings First sessions. We could name each of the different feelings felt by Riley in the movie ‘Inside Out’ and we even had some strategies to help her overcome them.
We call the first one starfish breathing and it is something we use a lot in Early Years to help us.
Great job everyone!
What is beautiful about the natural world?
Our new RE topic is all about how we understand and care for the world around us.
This week, we thought about what is beautiful about our natural world.
We went into our playground and used our senses to think about what we can see, hear, touch and smell.
We will be moving on to think about the creation story next week.
The bark is rough – Josh
The flowers are beautiful- Lailah
I can smell the grass -Wyatt
I can hear some birds – Blossom
Help at home: can your child use their senses to think about the nature where you live?
The Night Pirates
This week, we’ve started exploring The Night Pirates by Peter Harris.
Using our story map, we’ve enjoyed retelling the story with actions and expression. We’ve heard some fantastic pirate impressions and not forgetting our new pirate names.
Maths
This week, we introduced the children to Rekenreks. We continued to develop our subitising skills by using our “fast eyes” to quickly identify the number of beads shown. Rekenreks help children explore the structure of small numbers and build confidence in recognising quantities without counting.
We learnt that all of the beads should start on the right-hand side. This is known as the ‘ready position’. The children practised using the ‘pause (think), place (one finger), push (the beads)’ method. We always make sure we’re only using one finger when carefully pushing the beads.
Phonics
Now that we’ve reached the final half-term, we’ll be revisiting and consolidating all of our phonics learning in preparation for Year 1.
Have a happy and healthy weekend.
Cities and seasides
Summer 2: Seaside and Cities
Welcome to our final half term in Reception our theme is Seaside and Cities and our focus books this half term are
Have a fantastic half term everyone and enjoy the sunshine but be safe. Drink lots of water and don’t forget to wear some sun cream.
Staying Safe
This week, we’ve joined in with school’s safety themed week. We’ve learnt all about staying safe in lots of different situations.
In school, we explored how we can stay safe in our classroom and outdoor areas. We also set up our very own Forest School area in our garden, Year 5 and 6 came to see us in big Forest school and reminded us how we need to use the equipment to keep ourselves and each other safe. Sarah has been great at making the rules simple enough for us to remember them. Thank you to the big kids for helping us stay safe.
We also talked about the important adults who help to keep us safe, as well as the ways we can help to look after and support each other.
To finish the week, we watched a road safety video and discussed different types of road crossings and how to cross roads safely.
Reminders
We will return for our final term on Monday 01 June.